5 Games to Make You Cry

Before we begin, let me just give you a MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING, look at that text, remember it, it is in bold after all. I give you this warning because I will be talking about the points in these games that got me all teary-eyed. Good, then we can begin.

Forms of media can invoke so much emotion. Not for me of course, I am the pinnacle of masculinity who hasn’t cried since the ending of Toy Story 3, don’t judge me, it felt like the end of my childhood was happening before my very eyes. Video games are a completely different story, they’re an interactive experience, you put yourself in someone’s shoes, you feel their triumphs but when things hit that somber note, then boy do you feel that too.

So here are the top 5 games to make me shed a manly tear, or two, or twelve.

1. TellTale's The Walking Dead - Season 1

Linear, story-based games are my crux, once I start playing I can’t seem to stop, but this one hits the top of the list for one special reason: Clementine.

You spend roughly 10 hours of the game trying to survive the horrors of Robert Kirkman’s Zombie Apocalypse, but more importantly, you spend those hours making sure Clementine survives this experience. You care for her, you try to make sure she doesn’t experience the horrors you face, and you make sure she keeps her hat because she just freaking loves that thing.

After all this time, you save Clementine from a deeply troubled man (who you also find out is only in this predicament due to the actions of you and your friends throughout the game), but one problem, you have been bitten, and you are dying.

Those moments are where you can feel your heart break in twain as you convince Clementine to take the gun, end your life and go on without you. It’s a parting of ways, but it’s not even a remotely happy end, you die but Clementine has to go on, in this horrible world, without Lee.

2. To The Moon

Think of it like this, take story elements of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and place it in a pixelated world with some of the best pieces of music in video game history (don’t ask me why it’s not on my best video game music list, it’s just not) and you get To The Moon.

You play as two scientists who enter the minds of dying people to ensure that they have memories of achieving their dreams, this is when they meet Johnny Wyles, an old man on his death bed who’s always wanted to go to the moon. As the doctors you travel backwards through his life through pieces of time called “Mementos”, throughout this they see segments of Johnny’s life, mainly revolving around his relatively unhappy marriage with his childhood sweetheart; River.

What makes this so horrible is simply the events that occur through Johnny’s life, awful marriage, loss of a sibling, the whole lot.

Even though the doctor’s fix everything so that Johnny lived without regret and went to the Moon, there is that lingering sadness that eats away at you when you remember that none of that happened, Johnny’s life was awful, and we all got to experience that.

3. Lost Odyssey

Japanese RPG’s aren’t usually my thing, but I was always drawn to Lost Odyssey, the visuals were beautiful, it also has an interesting twist on the turn-based combat mechanic that you see in other JRPG titles that made it feel more interactive.

These were what initially made me pick up the title in the first place, what made me keep playing was one particular moment in the game’s story. In this title you play as Kaim, an immortal man who has lost his memory, once he is placed back in civilization, he comes across his daughter; Lirum. Lirum is not an immortal, and Kaim has been gone for some time, so Kaim gets to see his daughter on her death bed, the first time after seeing her since she was a child. Interstellar has nothing on this game.

4. The Last of Us

This is no secret, but I bloody well love the Last of Us, I almost consider it to be the greatest video game of our time, it kept me captivated for the whole 14 hour playthrough, but how did it hook me in the first place? By making me cry within the first half an hour.

The game starts just as the outbreak cordyceps virus beings, we don’t play as Joel but instead as his daughter Sarah as they try to make their way out of the city. How does it end, by a government soldier gunning down Joel and Sarah, Joel is left alive and holds his daughter in his arms as the world crumbles around him. That’s just how the game starts, you would have only had the controller in your hand for 15 minutes by this point. The game only gets better from there.

5. Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption to me is the epitome of “this is not fair”. For hours you play as John Marston, a former outlaw and gang member who travels across the old west taking down his old buddies in the hopes that he can return to his farm so he can live out the rest of his days with his son and wife.

He manages that for some time before life, and the law decide that’s too nice of an ending for a man who had once done terrible thing. So the police force come to kill John and his family, as they are the loose ends of this tale. John is gunned down by law marshals whilst his son and wife escape on a horse.

It’s a title that ends on such a negative tone, you would think after all you accomplished you could at least get the redemption that the title promises you. Red Dead Redemption was not fair, kind of like life.